Impressions
by Kainos Ktisis
Summary: An unlikely alliance, but one that would eventually not just save the world, but change it fundamentally. Snapshots of the thoughts and feelings of Auldrant's would-be saviors during their journey. Drabble/oneshot collection
1. Jerk

A/N: Yup. I'm venturing into foreign waters here. I just finished playing ToA recently, and I really loved the characters. In fact, I loved them so much I wrote down a list of potential prompts to write AS I was playing the game. :) So yeah, that's basically what these are. They're roughly in chronological order, and are short snippets/fleshed-out moments of something that struck me in the game. I'm a very strong proponent of Luke/Tear, so most of the romance will revolve around them. However, many of these deal with other characters also, so really this is a mixed bag with something for almost everyone (except slash because sorry, but I don't write slash).

With that all said (and potentially taking more space than the actual drabble...), here's my first shot at the _Tales of the Abyss_ universe.

**Disclaimer: **_Tales of the Abyss _and all related material are property of Namco Bandai Games Inc. I merely borrow them for devious—er, _artistic—_purposes.

* * *

><p><strong>IMPRESSIONS<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Impression #1:<em> Jerk  
><em>Summary<em>: Tear's first, second, third, and fourth impressions of Luke are less than impressive. Her fifth impression of him is even worse, when all he says about her giving up her pendant is that now he won't get his shoes dirty.  
><em>Setting<em>: Tataroo Valley (night)  
><em>Characters<em>: Tear, Luke

* * *

><p>Tear's first impression of Luke was bad. Well, maybe it wasn't so much <em>bad<em> as it was _annoying_. After all, he had gotten in her way of assassinating her brother for his treason. (Somewhere in the deepest depths of her heart, she was thankful that Luke _had_ gotten in the way, but she wouldn't realize this for a long time yet.)

Her second impression was slightly better, but that was only because he was unconscious and unable to open his big mouth. She'd always been too honest with herself to deny her attraction to something, whether it be simply cute or _cute_. Locrian Sergeant she may be, but she was still a young woman with a young woman's eyes, and she could very easily see that Luke had been very blessed by the physical combination of his parents in him.

Her third impression was rather neutral, or perhaps even a little pitying. What kind of secluded life must the boy have lived such that he had never seen the ocean before?

Her fourth impression was that he was an idiot who would get himself killed in under a minute in the field for all the common sense that he had. Granted, after he'd finished being a wimp, they had made a pretty good team. He was still an idiot, though.

However, it was her fifth impression that sealed her dislike of him.

"Huh. So you had something nice on you after all. Now I won't have to get my shoes dirty."

Outwardly, she just stared at him unblinkingly until he shrugged uncomfortably and moved past her, but inwardly she was fuming.

Of all the stupid, idiotic, selfish, self-centered, self-serving, self-whatever! things he could say!

That had been her mother's pendant, the only thing by which she could remember parents she'd never seen before, and that was all the spoiled brat could say? Stupidity she could deal with, but such a degree of selfishness set her blood simmering. Granted, there was no way he could have known how valuable that "something nice" was to her, but not even a word of thanks…

She glared at his back as he followed the coachman to their expensively-bought ride.

She wasn't quite childish enough to stick her tongue out at him, but she'd never been quite so tempted to ever before.


	2. Alike

A/N: Ouch, no love. haha. It's all good. From my understanding, the ToA fandom is still fairly small, so I'll take this as an opportunity to spread the joy. That being said, I would appreciate feedback, so please leave a review if you can! Thanks!

Anyhow, a lot of this is borrowed from the skits. Credit goes to **Kestal** on Gamefaqs(dot)com for compiling and transposing all the skits in the game.

* * *

><p><strong>IMPRESSIONS<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Impressions #2<em>: Alike  
><em>Summary:<em> It made it difficult for Luke to hate Tear when he had the first inkling that they weren't as different as they appeared.  
><em>Setting:<em> Tataroo Valley (night)  
><em>Characters:<em> Luke, Tear

* * *

><p>For the first ten minutes or so of being thrown out into the middle of no-man's land, Luke had been royally pissed off. After all, he was stuck with this crazy, cold-hearted bitch who'd tried to assassinate—assassinate!—Master Van. In his book, that made her the embodiment of all that was evil, never mind the fact that she had a pretty face with the eyes of an angel (and the body of a siren, noted his teenage hormones). Nor did he appreciate being away from home.<p>

After those first ten minutes, he realized the importance of that last complaint. _He was finally away from home!_

For seven years, he'd basically been held prisoner within his own home. Seven years after being kidnapped by Malkuth in an event he didn't even remember.

And finally, _finally_, he was in the outside world. It was enough to make him almost giddy.

The wild flowers here weren't carefully cultivated by Pere. The horizon was unblemished by man-made structures. The sea, vast and mysterious, spread out before him like a feast for his senses. God damn, even the air seemed to be fresher.

And he was fighting real enemies! No more dummies. These were real monsters that didn't hold back, and he reveled in the freedom.

Still, he wasn't about to let _her_ know how excited he was to be out of his pris—er, home.

But...but then she kept on saying things that made it kind of hard to hate her.

"I'm sorry...I'll get you back to your manor." She startled him with that. Luke had the impression that she didn't seem the type to apologize, not because she was too proud, but because she probably thought she was right most of the time.

"You damn well better!" he snapped back automatically, even though he felt that was a little harsh, a feeling that was exacerbated when he saw genuine remorse briefly flit through Tear's stony expression.

"It's my fault, after all... I'm very sorry."

Uncomfortable now, he pretended to busy himself with adjusting his sword's sheath. Avoiding eye contact, he said as offhandedly as possible, "Yeah...well, I don't get out all that often anyway, so I guess a little walking around won't hurt."

There was a pause, and then Tear studied him curiously and he had his first hint that Tear actually _was _a flesh-and-blood female with their goddamned sense of inquisitiveness. "So...do you want to go home or not?"

The way she was staring at him made him flush a little and that just irritated him. "Of course I want to go home! What the hell kind of question is that?"

Any traces of that normal human emotion suddenly blanked away and Tear was a fon machine again. "Then stop talking and start moving. If you want to go for a stroll, wait until we're someplace safer."

He sighed. "Fine, fine."

…

An hour later, Luke was starting to think that freedom was pretty damn overrated.

He slashed his sword through the tall grass to make it easier to see where he was stepping, and his whole upper body was starting to feel swollen and sore from excess use of muscles he didn't know he had. Not to mention it felt like he was walking next to an ice cube for all that Tear spoke. Or maybe something with thorns would be a better analogy. When she did talk, she kept on criticizing his swordplay, and _that_ was not appreciated.

Scowling, Luke grumbled, "I don't like this place. It's all dark, you can't see anything, there are monsters everywhere..."

Of course, Tear would choose _now _to answer when he wasn't looking for a response. He was starting to get a pattern with her. She spoke to annoy him.

"Once you leave the safety of town, monsters can appear anywhere. This is no different from anywhere else. And as for the darkness, it's nighttime. There's not much I can do about that."

Gods, she was literal.

"Well, yeah, but I mean, I get out for the first time in years, and as soon as I open my eyes, it's all dark with monsters all over the place. What's up with that?"

She didn't say anything for a while, and he thought that maybe she'd chosen to ignore him _this_ time, but a couple of minutes later, she surprised him by saying, "Maybe right now it is dark and eerie and full of monsters, but...I still think it's a pretty place. I mean, I've never been around this much...nature..."

Luke was struck silent for a moment. Never mind the fact that she was a closet romantic, the more staggering realization was that she was just like him. He wondered why was it that Tear hadn't been able to get out more. Had she been held captive—well-intentioned as it may be—also?

He wasn't sure if he liked this feeling of getting to know her because he was coming to realize that they were more alike than he ever would have thought.


End file.
